John Baer

STAFF COLUMNIST

John Baer has written about politics and government for the Daily News since 1987. Neither subject ever fails to provide him with stories of policies and politicians walking on or skirting by paths to perdition.

Not to rile those who still believe the state's new voter ID law is all about fighting fraud and has nothing to do with depressing the Democratic vote in a General Election year, but...

Gov. Corbett's appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth, Carol Aichele, who's department oversee elections, released some numbers mid-afternoon Tuesday before the July 4 holiday (certainly just a coincidence) that might help Democratic claims that the law has more to do with politics than fraud.

The numbers, as reported in the July 4 Inky, say a match-up of voter registration rolls and PennDOT photo ID data shows that 9% of statewide voters do not have photo IDs.

The secretary initiallly put the number at just 1%.

PennDOT IDs are the most common photo IDs accepted under the new law in order to vote.

The new data shows 758,939 voters could not be matched with PennDOT IDs.

The county-by-county breakdown shows the largest concentration of such voters is in Philly (186,830) and Allegheny County (99,218), both Democratic strongholds.

The total of just these the two counties (286,048) is more than three times the total votes former Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak lost by in his 2010 Senate race against Republican Pat Toomey. Toomey beat Sestak by 80,229 votes.

The just-released numbers include "inactive" voters and those who may have other photo IDs, and the department says it will contact all voters without PennDOT IDs by letter this summer to remind them of the new law.

Still, when coupled with recent remarks by Republican House Leader Mike Turzai that voter ID will "allow" Mitt Romney to carry Pennsylvania this year, the state data seems to bolster claims that fighting fraud isn't the only thing the law's about.

The issue, which is getting national attention, is headed to Commonwealth Court July 25 and, almost certainly, will end up in the state Supreme Court.